THE GIFTED LUNA

Tiara was a beautiful woman of average height with curly, brown silky hair. She had lost her parents as a baby so she had lived with her uncle in her parent’s house. Unfortunately, she lost her uncle too to a deadly illness when she was twelve and she lived alone ever since. Now in her early twenties and accustomed to fending for herself, she sold herbs from the forest behind her house to make a living.“I can’t believe how much profit I made today,” she said happily after a productive day selling fresh herbs.“If things keep going this smoothly, I just might be able to have an early retirement,” she added with a smile as she fell on the couch with a thump…but she knew better than to daydream. She had learned early enough that things don’t always go as planned and so with a sigh, she got out of her couch as quickly as she had gotten in and went to the forest to gather a fresh set of herbs for the next day. It had been one of the days she’d sold out her herbs while the sun was out and shining bright. Sunlight filtered through the leaves of the forest as Tiara crouched down to examine the herbs. She believed in quality over quantity so she picked only the best forest herbs, even if it meant returning home with a half-full basket. A glimmer of satisfaction flashed through her eyes as she spotted a cluster of wild thyme, its tiny purple flowers shining through the sea of green. With a satisfied smile, she reached for the fragrant thyme sprigs, brushing aside ferns and fallen leaves. She spotted fresh peppermint leaves further down, its mentholated scent tickling her nose. With another huge smile, she walked over to the mints, crouching down to pick them. She used her thumbnail to gently pluck out the greenest mint leaves with practiced ease. As soon as she was finished putting the peppermint leaves in her basket, she spotted a tuft of lemon balm, her bestselling herb. This time she giggled to herself. She skipped happily to the balm’s location, humming as she went along. Crouching down once again, her expert hands transferred the leaves to her herb basket, the refreshing scent of citrus filling the air. The day had been going on beautifully from the moment she woke up and it only got better with every hour. She was blissfully ignorant of the drastic turn things were about to take. Navigating the muddy routes of the forest, she gathered as many useful herbs as she could find, engrossed in her thoughts and wandering deeper and deeper into the forest. She was pulled out of her thoughts when she saw a horse hoof standing where her peppermints should have been. She looked up from the ground and saw a group of horses anchored to different trees chewing on her precious herbs. Sensing danger, she behind a big oak tree, clutching her basket to her chest. Her heart was pounding so hard against her chest that she was scared that her chest would rip open. Then the sound of laughter filled the forest air. She tried to figure out where the sound was coming from but it was no use. Her brain was in such a frenzied state she could hardly see. She definitely couldn’t process a single thought too as her head was spinning so bad she thought she was going to faint. At this rate, I’ll kill me before they ever could, she thought to herself. She tried to calm herself down but could not shake off the feeling that she was being watched…and then she heard footsteps approaching. Knowing that there was no point in panicking, she began to think of solutions. Her eyes scanned her immediate environment for a possible weapon and she found a large, crooked staff and a pointy twig. Unsure what she was going to do with either of them, she put down her baskets and picked them up, holding them to her chest with bated breaths.“Over there!” She heard a man yell and her sense of reason left her. Leaving everything behind, she ran as fast as her feet could carry her.She wasn’t even sure she had a pursuer but as someone whose primary objective was to stay alive, she wasn’t interested in finding out. She had no idea where she was going but she trusted her feet to carry her to safety. After running for quite a while, she found herself at the forest’s exit, a few feet away from her home…then came the footsteps she’d heard earlier and this time, she could tell that they were not very far away from her. Betrayed by my own feet, she said glaring at her muddy feet. She looked around for a hiding spot and found one between two nearby trees.“Do you think someone lives in the house down there?” One of the men asked. From the sound of their voices, she could tell they were close to her location.“Why would anyone live in the outskirts?” Another man asked, raising a bow and an arrow. Her breath caught in her throat at the sight of the weapon.“Why would there be a house there if no one did?” the first man retorted“Hush,” his partner said, “you’re distracting me,” he said quietly, pointing his bow and arrow in every direction.“Man, where are you even aiming at?” “I am sure there are animals everywhere.”“Out here…in the open.” Tiara picked up on the annoyance in his voice.“The outskirts of the country are not open, man.”“I just want game that’s large enough to impress the alpha. Don’t you want that too?”“Of course, I do!”“So why the hell are we hunting on the street?!”Tiara could see the armed man glaring his partner down. As the tension between them increased, all she could think of was the alpha. The alpha? She wasn’t sure she had heard them right.“Hush!” The man with the bow and arrow said through clenched teeth, pointing his bow and arrow directly at Tiara.“What, am I distracting you from hunting leaves?” his partner snapped back“I heard a movement,” he said, moving closer to Tiara’s hiding spot.Tiara’s heart was now in her mouth as she squeezed her eyes shut, pushing herself into the trees, willing them to swallow her up. She watched them with bated breaths as he came closer to her…then just before he could reach her, his partner tapped his shoulder. “What is it?!” The man with the weapon asked, frustrated.“I think there’s a deer over there,” his partner said, pointing in the opposite direction.He turned in the direction his partner was pointing, squinting his eyes for a better view of the animal.“How are you, with the bad eyesight, holding the weapon right now?” his partner grumbled.The armed man looked towards Tiara's hiding spot, not sure if it was the right decision to chase after the possibility of prey when he’d already found one. Deciding not to chase shadows, he looked pointedly in Tiara’s direction, aiming for her. Tiara had had plenty of scares in her time in the forest but none had ever been quite as scary as this one. She watched helplessly as the man loaded his bow and pulled at the string. As he prepared to fire the arrow, she shut her eyes, preparing to be pierced through the heart.